Mommy Hacks – How to plan activities for kids

This is a simple article to say about how we can plan activities with our kids. I shall share some of my personal hacks I follow to plan my son’s activities. Lots of moms have been asking how do you get time and how do you manage with the household chores and other stuff in the day?

I am not a winner in it and I do have ups and downs. I too have lazy and do nothing days but I try to follow some simple hacks to make my life a bit smooth and give the best experience to my child. Here goes few pointers:

Using Technology wisely:

It’s a smart phone and I pad generation. So why don’t we use it to track, manage and edit our to do list?

I use memo app in my mobile and list down every idea that clicks in my mind. It might be a toy or a book I want to buy, list of activities to do for my son, things to buy for home. I categorize each list and look into it whenever I want.

A snap of to do list on my phone

Maintain a small book/Diary:

I maintain 2 small diaries.

One for kids recipes and one for all my sons activities. I mean what we have done last week, what to do next week, on which topic we need to focus more, book recommendations, toys etc., any ideas i see online.

Shopping:Shopping online has become nowadays so easy and due to lightning deals we end up buying so much.To keep a track of whatever toys I see, I save them in the cart and get back to them after a while. If it’s really a lightning deal and much wanted and awaited toy I shall go for it with no second thought.But for all the other tempting stuff, I leave them in the cart and visit them at the end of the month. This makes me to analyze whether the stuff I added is it really required? What seems to us tempting at that time seems unnecessary after few weeks.So leave them in the cart and revisit.

Time Management: Coming to time management, I divide my day for household chores, one hour for preparation of Nidhish activities/ diy stuff/ browsing for ideas/ resources. One hour we completely spend on his activities, the structured play that I have planned for him. I leave him an hour for his free play and I take time to observe him on his interests and attention. We read two books a day for sure which would take around 20-30 min in a day. So I think planning and dividing your day for different chores would be more productive.

Working mums:I know working mums really struggle to find time to prepare activities once they come home tired. But what’s more important than spending some time in a day with your kid and knowing about his interests.Plz spend at least an hour in a day with your kids for sure. It might be reading a book, small activity, painting or just a conversation and cuddle. Whatever might be the learning approach you are following at your home, spend a good one hour of time every weekend and plan the activities for the week ahead.
As you plan your groceries, recipes, laundry and ironing everything ready for next week make it a habit to add this one hour for planning your kids week activities.You don’t have to do DIY or be creative for this. If you are having a shelf that’s awesome, but if you don’t have not to worry. Just use a nice table where the child can access things at his level.Invest in a good set of baskets and arrange all the activities into those baskets. For example if you want to do a matching activity of animals then put all the animal figurines and printables in a basket. Get set go. A puzzle, put the puzzle box in a basket. This way the child can pick whatever he want and you can happily assist evening without any rush. Select 10 books per week and set them aside, meaning 2 per day (weekends can repeat them or go according to child’s interest). Reading time sorted.

Our simple shelf activities for the week

Keeping in the Budget line:

This is really hard with buzzing deals around.

If I spend more this month I surely will cut off on the budget for next month unless it is a super bargain. But when you see a product worth check its reviews online or from parents who already bought it and try if there is an alternative you get for a less price.

Toy Rotation:

One of the most important and told technique by all expert moms. Nothing new from my side. But this really works.

Set the toys for a week according to your child’s interest and try and change them every week. This way your toys keep moving and the kid would not be bored.

Mix and Match Techniques:

This is what I love. Mix and match of various toys and resources give plenty of exposure to make learn things in wide variety of ways.

Make themed baskets for practical experience:

Make themed baskets which would interest your kid. For example if he is showing interest in vehicles make it a theme and fill that basket with a vehicle themed book, a toy vehicle represented in the book and any fun activity moving around the story or theme.

a themed basket on bugs

Free play/observation:

You have plenty of ways to go for free/ unstructured play and for this you don’t have to plan anything. This is completely child led and leave it to their creativity and imagination and you would be surprised with what they can do.

Hope you guys like them and plz do share the hacks that worked for you. Pics are for illustration purposes to show how you can arrange the activities.

I am a mother to a super active 3 year old son. I work part time but we together (me and my son) do lots of fun stuff at home. I play a major role in his early learning and try to make activities that are interest led by my child. You can visit us at our facebook page to see what we do.....
https://www.facebook.com/OurLittleFunPlace/

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